Tag: Kane Felsinger

On its first preview night, Domino – the latest production by Attic Erratic – takes us to a post-apocalyptic world where we meet the last five people left alive.

They engage in a dangerous roleplay game where the lines of illusion and reality quickly becoming blurred, and soon lead to something more sinister…

The lighting design by Laura Harris is, put simply, amazing. Her ability to capture the mood and emotions needed for this production and the shadow play she creates reinforces the overall theme of impending doom for this group of five men. The detailed set design and use of multimedia to support parts of the story all bring the technical aspects of this production to a high level.

However, Giuliano Ferla’s script, whilst able to draw you in to the lives of these five men, is a little confusing and you would not be blamed if you walked out feeling somewhat unfulfilled by the story. Some clarity or slowing down the pace to provide more explanation would have made a huge difference.

What the script – and direction by Danny Delahunty – does extremely well though, is developing the five characters played by Alex Duncan, Joseph Green, Kane Felsinger, Matt Hickey and Spencer Scholz . In the beginning, the men are edgy, jumping around and quite physical with each other, and the set and the “simplified” language being used indicate that humanity has regressed to primal, Neanderthal ways.

As the story continues, the men then degenerate further into the most base level of man with an intensely dramatic final scene. Being preview night it’s understandable that some nerves would be apparent, but for this performance it was Scholz and Felsinger in particular who were most convincing with their characters.

Overall, the fine acting and the superb technical design guarantee to make Domino a unique and engaging night of theatre.

After a stunning debut with their acclaimed production of The Laramie Project, Mockingbird Theatre Company continues their winning streak with a smaller-scaled but equally impressive showing of Joe Penhall’s Blue/Orange. This three-person play provides fantastic opportunities for the skilled actors of the company in its complex exploration of themes of mental illness, racism, colonialism and culture.

The plot is focused on the diagnosis and treatment of a young African man under two psychiatrists with opposing approaches to mental illness. Kane Felsinger as the institutionalized Christopher is phenomenal, dispatching the play’s fierce Mamet-like dialogue with ferocity while never letting us forget the real emotional pain underneath his at times off-putting persona. Christopher, diagnosed continually as sitting somewhere in ‘the borders between psychotic and neurotic’, draws both his doctors and the audience through the blurry boundaries between delusion, deception and uncertainty.

Richard Edge as Robert, the older and more pragmatic psychiatrist, embodies a man who is characterized mainly by his own mediocrity alongside surprising vitality. This man, who at first attempts to downplay and normalize Christopher’s disorder before endeavouring to exploit it as fodder for his own academic gain, seems like that archetypal charismatic and slightly sociopathic career-climber we encounter in every kind of field, instantly recognizable and creepily personable. Christian Heath as Bruce, Christopher’s younger and more compassionate psychiatrist, provides a strong moral and emotional centre to the story which anchors events amongst flurries of academic debate and cultural abstraction.

The three actors are all equally brilliant, and director Chris Baldock has done a fantastic job of choreographing them into shifting patterns of empathy and aggression which make them simultaneously sympathetic and antagonistic. Even as the two doctors aim to heal Christopher his mental illness becomes simply another instrument in their battle, echoing the marginalization and exploitation of ethnic and social minorities in patriarchal Western culture which continues even today.

A wonderful and thrilling night of contemporary theatre meditating on grand macrocosmic themes, but with the aid of magnificently talented actors never leaves behind the confusion and painful reality of everyday life.